Shopify SEO technical problems and how to fix them

Shopify is one of the world's most popular e-commerce platforms thanks to its ease of use and intuitive design. However, from an SEO perspective, it presents certain technical issues that can negatively impact an online store's ranking on Google.

If left unaddressed, these issues can lead to duplicate content, crawl errors, poor indexing, and a loss of organic traffic. As an expert Shopify SEO consultant, I've identified and resolved these problems across numerous projects. In this article, I'll explain the most common pitfalls and how to fix them effectively.

Problem 1: URLs with two versions (with and without slash)

The problem

In Shopify, all URLs have two versions:

• One that ends with a diagonal bar "/" (slash).
• Another one that doesn't have a bar at the end.

The problem is that both versions load the same content without redirecting to each other, resulting in duplicate content. This can confuse Google and dilute the authority of the pages.

Solution

To avoid this problem, you can set up a 301 redirect so that only one version is always displayed. Shopify doesn't allow you to modify this directly from its dashboard, but you can work around it with:

1. Review of the robots.txt file
2. Setting up canonical tags so that Google understands which is the main URL.
3. Rules in Cloudflare or .htaccess (for those using an additional layer of customization).

Personal experience: In one of my projects, this problem caused several product URLs to appear duplicated in Google Search Console. By implementing a forced redirect and canonicalization, we were able to reduce duplicate errors by 90%.

Problem 2: Incorrect breadcrumb structure

The problem

Breadcrumbs are essential for navigation and SEO, as they help users and Google understand the site's hierarchy. In Shopify, these breadcrumbs depend on the URL structure, but the problem is that subcategories don't appear nested correctly.

Example:

• Expected URL: /category/subcategory/product
• Actual URL on Shopify: / collections/product

This can affect how Google indexes content and the user's internal navigation.

Solution

To correct this, you can:

1. Edit the theme code to modify how the breadcrumbs are displayed.
2. Use a Shopify app like " Advanced Breadcrumbs " to structure them correctly.
3. Manually implement JSON-LD to ensure that Google interprets them correctly.

Personal experience: I modified the breadcrumbs in a Shopify with a custom code structure and improved category indexing, reducing the "crawl budget" wasted on irrelevant URLs.

Problem 3: Duplicate URLs in products

The problem

In Shopify, each product can have two different URLs, both accessible and with the same content:

• Main URL: /products/product-name
• Alternative URL: /collections/category-name/products/product-name

This creates duplicate search results, affecting ranking.

Solution

1. Implement a canonical tag on each product page so that Google prioritizes the correct version.
2. Avoid internally linking the version to /collections/ within the site.
3. Configure 301 redirects in case there are problems with old indexing.

Personal experience: In an e-commerce site with over 500 products, I solved this by implementing properly configured canonical tags. As a result, duplicate content was eliminated by 95% and organic traffic improved by 30%.

Problem 4: Duplicate content due to category filters

The problem

Product filters in Shopify generate URLs with dynamic parameters, such as /collections/zapatos?color=rojo . This results in multiple versions of the same page, affecting indexing.

Solution

1. Add "noindex" to URLs with parameters to prevent Google from indexing them.
2. Modify the robots.txt file to block these parameters in the crawl.
3. Properly configure filters in Shopify to minimize the creation of unnecessary URLs.

Personal experience: In a fashion project, size and color filters were generating over 5,000 unnecessarily indexed URLs. By blocking them in robots.txt and configuring "noindex," we were able to get Google to focus its crawling on the relevant pages.

Problem 5: Incomplete structured data

The problem

Shopify does not include full structured data markup (Schema) by default. This affects how products are displayed in Google search results, causing them to miss out on appearing in rich snippets.

Solution

1. Implement JSON-LD manually in the theme code.
2. Use an SEO app to automatically add Schem .
3. Verify the implementation using the Google Rich Results testing tool.

Personal experience: By manually implementing Schema in a Shopify store, we managed to improve the click-through rate (CTR) in Google results by 20% in just 2 months.

Problem 6: Limitations in image optimization

The problem

Shopify hosts images on its own CDN and does not allow modification of the image URL slug.

Solution

1. Optimize images before uploading them , ensuring they have descriptive names and appropriate ALT tags.
2. Compress images with tools like TinyPNG to improve loading speed.
3. Use WebP instead of JPG/PNG to improve performance.

Problem 7: Performance and speed in Shopify

The problem

Excessive use of apps on Shopify can negatively affect loading speed, impacting user experience and SEO.

Solution

1. Remove unnecessary apps and replace them with custom code whenever possible.
2. Optimize theme code by reducing CSS and JavaScript files .
3. Use lazy loading for images and videos.

Personal experience: By removing 5 unnecessary apps from a Shopify store, we improved the loading time from 4.5s to 2.1s, which increased the conversion rate by 15%.

Shopify is a powerful platform, but it presents certain technical SEO issues that must be resolved to ensure good Google rankings. From duplicate URLs to website performance, all of these problems can be solved with the right technical adjustments.

If you have a Shopify store and want to improve its SEO, trust us as your Shopify Partner agency ! Start implementing these solutions and you'll notice the difference!